More Than Just Coincidence
by Le soleil brille pas pour toi
Summary: Here's the Magic School Bus kids in high school, and somehow Ms. Frizzle is their teacher again. What's it all leading up to? *** I abandoned this story years ago, and have suddenly decided to continue it - see author's note in chapter 9.
1. First day!

Why, hello there! This is a story that I started and abandoned quite some time ago. (I'll spare you the details, but if you're terribly interested, it's more explained in the author's note in chapter 9.) I recently decided to continue it, but first I'm redoing the first 8 chapters that I wrote so very long ago, just changing a few things that my middle school self apparently thought would be a good idea but really weren't.

So, if any of my old readers actually reads this again, then I hope you enjoy the changes I've made! And to new readers, I hope you enjoy it at all!

* * *

Wanda walked with Keesha toward the bus stop, on their very first day of grade ten, which meant their very first day of high school.

"Are you psyched for being high schoolers or _what_?" Wanda exclaimed excitedly, as she pushed her way past some elementary school kids to get to the front of the crowd waiting for the bus. She didn't seem to mind the complaints of the little kids she had shoved aside, but Keesha felt guilty by association.

"Um, Wanda? You really shouldn't cut in line like that... They were there first..."

"C'mon, Keesh! Don't be a chicken now! We're tenth graders, and we have a reputation to form and protect," Wanda said firmly.

Keesha rolled her eyes, knowing she wouldn't be able to reason with her stubborn friend, instead grabbing her by the crook of the elbow and dragging her to the back of the line. "When are you going to learn some manners?"

"Speaking of manners... or lack thereof." Wanda pointed down the street at two figures running full speed toward the bus stop. Keesha recognized them instantly: The Dynamic Duo, Carlos and Ralphie.

As they neared the group of kids, Ralphie called out, "First one to hug Wanda wins!" He put on a final burst of speed and lunged toward Wanda.

"I don't think so!" She stepped out of the way just in time, and he fell flat on the sidewalk. Wanda giggled. "Nice try!"

As she was reaching to take Ralphie's hand and help him up, Carlos snuck behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "I win!" he called out. Ralphie jumped up.

"Not fair! She moved! I would have won!" Ralphie crossed his arms and glared angrily at Carlos, who laughed with an air of superiority.

"I think you're just a sore loser!" Carlos said smugly. Ralphie got angrier still.

"No way!" He turned on his heel to face Wanda. "What do _you_ think? I won, right?"

Wanda stroked her chin in thought. After a few seconds, she said, "Hmm... It's close, but after much deliberation, I think that the true winner here is... me!" She grinned slyly, and before anyone had time to react, she darted onto the bus that had just pulled up, running all the way to the back. She flung her backpack in one back seat and sat in the other herself. Her three tenth-grade companions followed quickly.

"Hey," Ralphie whined teasingly, "I wanted a back seat, too!"

Wanda smirked. "You'll have to fight me for it, you weaselly wimp!" She had actually stopped calling people weaselly wimps by the time she was in middle school, but today in particular she recalled her days in the third grade with Ms. Frizzle as a teacher and all her old friends still around her. Alas, none of them had seen Ms. Frizzle since the last day of grade three, and Tim had moved away just before grade seven. Phoebe had met up with some friends from her old school at the beginning of middle school, and had gradually drifted away from the old Walkerville Elementary gang.

Wanda was pulled from her thoughts by Ralphie's response. "Oh, really now?" He grinned widely and put up his fists. Wanda readied herself as well; five years in martial arts classes had not been wasted. Ralphie made like he was going to punch her, then when she tried to block, he jumped into the seat and tickled her. Wanda screamed shrilly.

"Ral— Ralphie! Stop—!" But she was so ticklish she couldn't finish a sentence. "No! Too— too tickl—!" She broke off in a fit of gasping laughter.

"Hey you two, quit your flirting!" Keesha teased them.

"Oooh, Ralphie and Wanda in the back seat!" Carlos said suggestively.

Wanda pulled herself together and shoved Ralphie out of the seat. "Carlos, that is _sick_!" She reached over to punch his arm, but he dodged out of the way.

"Touchy!" Carlos said. Once Wanda got over her indignation, the four friends chatted until the end of the ride, where they all got off the bus to face their first day of high school.


	2. Reunited

Aaaaaand here's the updated version of the second chapter! You know, I'm pretty much on a roll, and it's not taking very long to update these chapters. I might even finish them all by the end of the day.

* * *

Carlos, Ralphie, Wanda and Keesha walked toward the building where Dorothy-Ann and Arnold were.

The six good friends stood together in front of their new school, just imagining the year ahead of them, when...

"You guys, is it just me, or does that look like Tim?" Ralphie said, pointing at someone walking by a few metres away.

"Let's find out." Wanda cupped her hands around her mouth. "Hey Tim!"

When he turned, Wanda grinned and waved. Tim returned the smile and walked over to the group.

"Tim, my man! You're back!" Carlos punched his old friend in the arm.

"Yeah, my dad's company transferred him back here, so we just moved back!" Tim explained. "Hey... where's Phoebe?"

"Oh yeah, you weren't here when... Well, a bit after you moved, she began to favour her friends from her old school, and kinda stopped hanging out with us," Keesha said.

Wanda looked over her shoulder. "Speak of the backstabbing little devil..."

Phoebe was approaching the seven friends hesitantly. When they noticed her, she sped up to reach then, and just stood there uncomfortably for a moment, everyone's attention now focused on her.

"Umm... Hi guys," she said when the silence became too much.

"Did you guys hear something? I could've sworn... No, I guess it was just the wind," Wanda said, dramatically shifting her gaze to the sky.

Phoebe looked hurt. Keesha took compassion and went to stand beside Phoebe. "Don't mind Wanda, she's in a bad mood 'cause we spoiled her flirting with Ralphie."

Ralphie and Wanda reacted simultaneously, eyes wide. "HEY!"

"So Pheebs, what brings you back here with us?" Keesha continued.

Phoebe smiled at her friend's hospitality and the use of her old nickname. "Actually, after I started hanging out with my old friends, I realized that we were all just too different and we weren't as close as before."

"And it took you this long to come back?" Arnold said. There was the tiniest hint of a blush creeping across his face, talking to Phoebe.

"Yeah. Stupid, really. I thought you would all be mad at me for leaving you so I just put up with them, scared that you guys would be really nasty about it." She blushed as well, partly from admitting to her worries, and partly because she was talking to a certain red-headed boy after having missed him for some time. "But today felt different. I felt as if we were back in grade three and everyone was still good friends. When I saw Tim back with the group, that finalized it... I had to come over and make things right again."

The others smiled and welcomed her back. They spent the rest of the morning before the first bell reminiscing about their elementary school days, and how much they missed their lessons with Ms. Frizzle.

The bell rang and the newly reunited gang made their way to their homeroom class, science, which, oddly enough, they all had together.

The eight companions found their lockers then their homeroom. They were the first ones in the room and much to their surprise, nobody else came into the classroom. Apparently they were a very small class.

"You guys, I have a feeling that something is going on here... Like, we're all back together again—Tim moved back, Phoebe came to her senses—and now it looks like we're the only ones in this class! I mean, a little weird, doncha think?"

"Yeah..." Tim said. "This is kind of uncanny."

Before anyone else could say anything, their homeroom teacher for the year came in. A familiar-looking, frizzly-haired, red-headed teacher.

"Hello class," she greeted them. She glanced around the room. "My, there's not many of you, is there? I haven't had a class this small since... Oh well, let's get started. I'm Ms. Frizzle and—"

"MS. FRIZZLE!" the whole class erupted in unison. The teacher looked at the teenagers with a bewildered expression.

"Yes, that's right. Oh, I feel as if I know you all from somewhere..."

"You do!" cried Dorothy Ann. "We were one of your third grade classes at Walkerville Elementary!"

Ms. Frizzle squinted in thought for a moment, then a look of realization came to her face. She smiled brightly. "Why, Dorothy Ann, thank you! It's been so long, I didn't recognize any of you! Are all eight of you here? What a strange coincidence..."

"Yeah! We're all here, Ms. Frizzle! Do you still have Bus and Liz?" Wanda said excitedly. Her best year of school was grade three and she could hardly wait for a year of fun.

"Well, as a matter of fact, I still have Liz. I don't take her to school any more, she's just too old. But Bus was taken away a few years ago, when its engine broke and I couldn't fix it." Ms. Frizzle ended her explanation with a far-away and remorseful look. She was tugged back to reality when Phoebe's hand went up in the air.

"Yes, Phoebe?"

"I was wondering, what will we do this year? Will it be like in grade three, with all of our field trips?" As Phoebe mentioned field trips, Arnold flinched a bit. Too many bad experiences.

A smile slowly spread across Ms. Frizzle's face. "Well, Phoebe, I'm not quite sure myself. But it's always a possibility."

And so their first year of high school began with a twinkle in everyone's eye and hope for a year of excitement, much like they had in third grade.


	3. Troublemakers

This update is turning out to be more work than I thought... there are a few factual matters I decided to change, just to make everything make a bit more sense. They're small changes, but are mentioned every so often and I have to make sure to catch all of these mentions so that the continuity of the story is unaffected. *sigh* What have I gotten myself into?

By the way—in the original version of this story, I called the principal Mr. Regulation, as a not-so-subtle reference to Mr. Ruhle's name. I've picked a new name for him this time around. Still a reference, but not so blatant now, hahah.

Anyway, here's the new-and-improved chapter 3!

* * *

And so the first lesson began.

"Well, class, since it was so long ago that we were all together, how about we all reacquaint ourselves, and tell a bit about what we're planning for the future?" Ms. Frizzle suggested. "Who would like to go first?"

"Oh, I would!" said D.A. She stood up and looked around at her classmates. "As you all know, I'm Dorothy Ann Parker. I was on the school newspaper committee in junior high, so I hope to be on staff here too. I take great pride in my organizational skills and I plan on attending Harvard after I graduate from high school."

She sat down confidently. "Way to give a speech," Carlos whispered beside her. She smiled and rolled her eyes at him.

"I'll go next," said Tim. "I'm Tim Jamal, and my family and I just moved back here from New York because my dad's company transferred him. I'd like to be an artist someday." Keesha suggested he show the class a few drawings from his sketchbook—which he did. Everyone was very impressed.

"Marvelous, Tim!" Ms. Frizzle said. "Who's next?"

Ralphie stood up. "I am Ralphie Tennelli. I am a sports man and, as everyone knows, a ladies' man." He wiggled his eyebrows at Wanda.

"Oh, grow up!" Wanda sighed. "I'm Wanda Li. I'm going to be on TV in action movies, and nobody can stop me!" she stated proudly.

"Good, good. How about you, Arnold?" Ms. Frizzle continued.

"Well... Arnold Perlstein. I'm still going to be a geologist. Uh... I guess that's all."

"Carlos Ramon. Inventor, athlete, genius. You name it, I'm good at it!" Carlos said and flashed his trademark grin.

"I'm Keesha Franklin. I've done a lot of thinking, and right now I want to be a novelist. But I'll probably change my mind soon anyway!"

"Who's left?" said Ms. Frizzle. "Phoebe?"

"I'm Phoebe Terese. I always wanted to be a veterinarian, but recently I've been thinking about being an ecologist."

"All right!" Ms. Frizzle smiled. "How about we start on a little science revision and we'll see what we can do about a field trip soon, hm?"

Everyone cheered, except Arnold, who covered his face with his hands and slumped down in his chair.

* * *

The class went by surprisingly quickly, then the eight of them had to part ways for their next classes. They exited into the hallway as the bell rang.

"Wow you guys, how cool is this?" exclaimed Wanda. "We're all reunited, and now the Friz is back!"

"Yeah, it's so great!" Keesha replied. She took a folded piece of paper from her pocket, and studied it for a moment. "My next class is at the opposite end of the building..."

"You'll have to run to get there in time," remarked Tim.

"Hey Ralphie, piggyback!" Wanda called out. She jumped on his back and he ran down the hallway, the other six trying to keep up. Only Carlos could come close to Ralphie's speed, even while carrying Wanda.

Suddenly, something that would only happen on a '90s sitcom happened... Ralphie and Wanda ran right into the principal. The three of them were sprawled across the hallway. The principal got up and looked sternly at Wanda and Ralphie.

"I don't know just what you two were thinking, but that is completely unacceptable behavior. You will both come see me at my office at lunch hour and we will settle on a punishment for you." He looked down disapprovingly at them, still sitting on the floor, and then strode away quickly.

Wanda and Ralphie just burst out laughing. The rest of their friends caught up, out of breath.

"What happened here?" said Carlos, looking down at Ralphie and Wanda laughing hysterically on the floor. "Barely second period of the first day of school and you two are already in trouble, huh?"

"Why am I not surprised?" said Keesha.

The friends split up to attend the next two periods of class, then lunch came. Ralphie and Wanda went to the principal's office to receive their punishment as the others went to buy their lunch.

"It really was worth it, you know," Ralphie said. "Wasn't that fun?"

"It was a blast! But I think you need to check your brakes," Wanda said. They walked into the main office and were directed to take a seat by the principal's desk until he arrived a few minutes later. The nameplate on his desk read "Mr. Tennet."

"Mister Tennelli, Miss Li, you have displayed destructive and disrespectful behavior. Do either of you have anything to say for yourselves?" Mr. Tennet looked at them over his glasses, which looked about 20 years out of style.

"Um... it'll never happen again?" Wanda said hopefully.

"I certainly hope it won't. You will each serve one hour of detention after school for seven days, starting tomorrow. Any questions?"

Wanda and Ralphie remained silent.

"Then you are excused."

The pair left the office and found their friends in the cafeteria.

"So?" said Carlos, "What'd you get?"

"Detention for a week," said Ralphie glumly.

"The principal seems strict, doesn't he?" said Phoebe. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Well, at least we'll be together, right Wanda?" Ralphie said, and winked.

"Ralphie, cut it out!" Wanda said in exasperation.

"Come on, guys, it's obvious you like each other. Maybe you two should give it a try," Carlos suggested. "D.A. and I have been going steady for three months now."

Dorothy Ann smiled at him. "Yeah. You never know what'll happen."

"Whatever," Wanda said. "All I know is that right now I'm starving. I'm going to get some food!"

* * *

After the last two classes of the day, the eight friends met up on their way to Ms. Frizzle's classroom for end-of-day roll call.

They took their seats and Ms. Frizzle marched to the front of the room with a hint of a smile.

"Class, tomorrow we're going on a field trip!"


	4. Mixed emotions

Aaand now I'm officially half-way done the updating process. You know, reading over some of the pre- and post-chapter notes that I put in the original story, it's frankly just embarrassing, the things I wrote—my style of speaking, my sense of humour. Blech. It's making me want to go revise all my other old stories, to get rid of any other remnants of my eighth-grade self... but I'm far too lazy for that.

Also, just a warning: this chapter contains not-terribly-graphic, but still somewhat gross descriptions of gruesome illness and death. Brace yourselves, lads.

* * *

The next day, when the eight classmates arrived for their homeroom class, they could barely contain their excitement. The previous day, Ms. Frizzle had refused to divulge the destination of their field trip, and of course they were anxious to find out.

"Ms. Frizzle, where are we going?" Wanda asked, as soon as the teacher stepped into the room. She had always been enthusiastic about field trips.

"This week, we'll be learning about single-celled organisms, including bacteria, so I thought we'd start off this morning with a trip to 1349 to take a look at the Black Plague. Before we go, however, we've all got to take a vaccination to ensure we return in full health."

"It'll still be really risky; don't vaccinations take a while to fully take effect?" D. A. pointed out.

"It's a special vaccination, with 100 percent effectiveness, zero risk and an instant effect!" Ms. Frizzle said cheerily. The kids exchanged dubious glances, but decided to trust her on that, even though it sounded too good to be true, because they knew her to have strange but safe teaching methods.

"If you don't have Bus anymore, how will we get there?" Tim asked.

Ms. Frizzle laughed. "After Bus broke down, I called up my old friend who built it in the first place, and had him put together a van like it. A little less roomy, but it's got air conditioning."

"Well then... what are we waiting for?" Ralphie jumped up. "I'll get my shot first!"

Everyone got their vaccination with not much trouble (Phoebe was a little bit nervous) and all managed to pile into Ms. Frizzle's van—Phoebe in the passenger seat, Arnold, Tim and D.A. in the middle section, and Carlos, Ralphie, Wanda and Keesha squeezed into the back.

"All right class, here we go! Remember—take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" Ms. Frizzle pulled a lever on the dashboard, pressed a few buttons, and the van was enveloped in a massive tornado-like wind.

A few seconds later the van was resting perfectly still in the middle of a small field, looking out at a village that looked every bit like how you would imagine a medieval town to look: little huts here and there, pigs in pens, beggars in shabby clothes slumped in the streets. The eight students and their teacher got out of the cramped van and wasted no time in entering the village.

"We may have vaccinations, but I want to stay as far away as I can from them," D.A. whispered to Carlos as they passed a man on the ground, his face and arms covered with open sores. Carlos nodded firmly in agreement.

As the class made their way through the roads of the village, they noticed that hardly anyone was outside. Anyone living, at least. There were bodies piled high everywhere. It looked almost as disgusting as it smelled.

When they did come across a living person, they looked very nervous and reluctant to be outside. They always looked at the nine visitors with fright, probably intimidated by their different appearance.

After they had crossed what seemed like the entire village, Ms. Frizzle stopped at a particular house. "This is the local doctor. They didn't know much about medicine at this time because science wasn't very advanced yet, so doctors did little or nothing to help this epidemic. People still came to see them in hopes of finding a cure, but if the patient ended up getting better it was probably coincidental."

The kids peered through the doorway to see a few people talking to a man who was wearing a sort of mask, presumably as protection against infection. The man turned to see them.

"Are you folks in need of any assistance?" he inquired.

"No, sir. We are just passing through this village," Ms. Frizzle replied, in a flawless Old English accent.

The doctor nodded. "Very well. You had best be on your way; it is not safe to be out with the disease spreading as it is."

Ms. Frizzle nodded and smiled, then beckoned the kids to follow her to the end of the road.

"The basics about this plague are that there were three types: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Bubonic was the most common form and 80 percent of people who got it died. Pneumonic was the second most common and about 90 to 95 percent of all people who had it died. Septicemic was the most rare, but nearly 100 percent of anyone who got it died."

Ms. Frizzle paused from her informational speech and looked around at all the kids.

"Your job for this trip is to split up into pairs and look around this village. Ask questions, think about what you see, and try to guess which symptoms belonged to which plague. We meet back at the van in 40 minutes. Go now!"

D.A. and Carlos immediately paired up and left, as well as Arnold and Phoebe. Before Wanda could go partner up with Keesha, Ralphie took her arm and pulled her down a different street, leaving Tim and Keesha.

Ms. Frizzle couldn't help but chuckle to herself as she noticed that all the partners were boy-girl. "They never stay young for long..."

* * *

Arnold and Phoebe stopped at a small house near the center of the village. They peeked through the window, trying not to be noticed. Apparently, though, they weren't trying hard enough.

"'Ey! You kids! What're you doin' 'ere?" a woman called at them.

Arnold and Phoebe glanced nervously at each other as the woman eyed them suspiciously. "'Ow come your clothes are so... strange?"

"We are... travelers, from very far away," Arnold said. Phoebe snickered at his attempt at an English accent.

"You shouldn' be out. This bloody sickness 'as already taken my 'ole family, save for Henry. If I jus' had another child, 'e wouldn' be so lonely..." The woman looked with concern at a child of six or seven who was sleeping on a straw mattress but looked relatively well.

Phoebe looked sadly at the child. She knew that he probably wouldn't escape the disease. "We're sorry for bothering you. We'll be on our way now."

She and Arnold took their leave. "Well," said Arnold, "that didn't give us much information."

Phoebe was distraught. "Arnold, that poor little boy is going to die, and so is his mother! We've got to do something! Can't we give them some of the vaccine, or—"

"Pheebs, you know we can't go messing with the past. If we change history, something even worse than a giant epidemic could happen," Arnold said. Phoebe sighed resignedly and was pulled into a hug from Arnold, silent tears falling from her eyes.

* * *

Tim and Keesha went to a house on the road next to the one the doctor's was on. Keesha knocked on the door and they waited as a little girl came to the door with wide, frightened eyes.

"H—hello?" she said.

"Uh... hi," Tim said. Maybe they should have come up with something to say before just knocking.

"We're, um... we're apprentice doctors. Is there anything we can do to help you or your family?" Keesha supplied.

Another young girl, maybe a few years younger than Keesha and Tim, came to the door. She was presumably the younger girl's sister.

"None of our family are sick. We thank the Lord for it," she said. "Goodbye."

The door shut in Tim and Keesha's face. "That was a bit rude," Tim put in dejectedly.

"They're all afraid of getting sick, remember. They have a reason to not want unfamiliar people in their home," Keesha said. Tim shrugged and they walked away to try and find someone else to interview.

* * *

Ralphie continued to pull Wanda through the village by the wrist until he stopped in front of a house at random.

"Why this place?" Wanda said, observing the house they were standing by. It looked no different from any other building.

"I don't know. It just spoke to me," Ralphie replied.

"The _house_ spoke to you?" Wanda said. "Are you sure it wasn't just the voices in your head?"

Ralphie grinned. "Either way, I'm no one to resist when I hear a mysterious voice telling me to do something. Unless it's homework."

"Come on, Ralphie. We've only got a half hour now!" Wanda pushed him toward the house.

"Well, what are we gonna say?" Ralphie said when they stopped in front of the door.

"We'll tell them we work for the local newspaper and we're writing something on the plague for it."

"One problem. Newspapers won't be invented for another few hundred years."

Wanda rolled her eyes. "Then we'll say we're getting information for the king. Come _on_!" She rapped on the door. After about 30 seconds nobody had come to the door so Wanda knocked again. They waited for another minute, then Wanda became too impatient and opened the door herself.

She and Ralphie stepped in on an unimaginable scene. There were four corpses in the one-room house, each with a lot of sores and blood trickling from their mouths.

The two of them stared for a moment in combined shock and horror at the dead family—a mother, a father, and three children. They were just turning away to leave when there came a noise from the other end of the house. Wanda stopped and looked back.

She walked cautiously toward the place the noise was coming from and saw a make-shift crib in the corner. She looked inside and saw a malnourished-looking baby, who hadn't even enough strength to cry properly. Apart from being underfed, it looked perfectly healthy.

Wanda picked up the small cloth-swaddled child and turned back to Ralphie. "What do we do with her?" she said, trying her best not to let her eyes water.

"Uh..."

"We should find someone to look after her," Wanda said without waiting for Ralphie to reply.

"No one is gonna want another kid to look after with disease going around like this! They'll either not want another mouth to feed or be scared that she's infected," Ralphie said.

"She's going to starve otherwise!" Wanda said, nearly shouting. "We're not leaving this village until we've found her a new home."

She stormed out of the house with the baby in her arms and after a slight hesitation, Ralphie followed.

* * *

D.A. had insisted they look up the plague in her research book before observing the disease itself. After flipping through the pages of her book for ten minutes, she shut it in frustration.

"It doesn't have anything other than what Ms. Frizzle already told us!" she cried. "Shouldn't it at least have more specific dates, and symptoms of each type of plague?"

She stood up and paced back and forth for a minute, then turned to Carlos, who was still sitting on the ground. "What do you think?"

"I think I'm hungry."

"No, about this assignment!" D.A. flicked his ear, annoyed.

"Oh. Well, I think we should do what we're _supposed_ to. Try to guess which symptoms belong to each plague." Carlos stood up. He looked her in the eye and grinned.

D.A. couldn't help it—she grinned back and kissed him on the cheek. "Then let's get going."

* * *

The pair set off hand-in-hand to find a household to observe.

Arnold and Phoebe left the house they had visited first and had reached the end of the road to find a new place to visit when they saw Wanda rushing out of another house, carrying something.

Wanda saw Arnold and Phoebe and ran over to them, Ralphie following close behind. "You've got to help! This baby's whole family is dead and she's already hungry and if we don't find her a new home she'll starve and—"

"Whoa! Wanda, slow down! Why don't you explain from the beginning?" Phoebe said.

Wanda told her story and explained that the baby needed help right away. As she was talking, Ralphie was thinking. He had never seen this side of Wanda. She was usually one to keep her feelings of compassion or concern hidden, but now she was close to tears.

She finished her speech and looked at Phoebe pleadingly. Phoebe knew exactly what to do.

"Follow me. I know the perfect place!"

She ran back up the road she and Arnold had come from and the other three followed. She stopped at the house they had just been at and flung the door open. The woman inside looked at her in shock as her son woke with a start.

"I don' know whatcha think yer doin' but—"

"Ma'am, sorry for bothering you like this, but you said you wished you had another child, and we've just found a poor abandoned baby all alone. We were hoping you could take her in..." Phoebe explained.

She took the baby from Wanda and handed her to the woman. As soon as the baby was in the woman's arms, she ceased her attempted crying and brightened up considerably. It seemed as if she was meant for this family.

"O' course I'll take 'er! She's a darlin'." The woman cradled the baby in her arms and rocked her back and forth. She looked up and smiled at Phoebe. "Thank you."

Phoebe smiled back and she and the other three left the house. Arnold turned back on her a bit angrily.

"Phoebe, why did you do that? I told you, we can't change things that happened in the past! For all we know, we could be changing the entire course of events in the history of the world!"

Phoebe looked hurt. "We just saved a baby's life, Arnold. You should be happy about that. I could never leave her to die and you know it!"

"Well, what's done is done. There's no use arguing about it now. Let's go." Arnold turned and went back down the road. Phoebe followed at a short distance.

She knew Arnold was right in some respect. Changing the past could lead to a serious turn of events and it made sense to be concerned, but she was still upset with the way he had gotten so angry about it. She didn't know what to think of him right now.

* * *

When the 40 minutes Ms. Frizzle had given them was up, the eight of them returned to the van—some in high spirits, some quite upset, others somewhere in between. Ms. Frizzle was waiting in the van. The students wordlessly found their seats, and they were transported back to the high school.

Back in their classroom, they had just enough time to share their observations and for Ms. Frizzle to tell them more about the plague before it was time to switch classes.

As the class was packing up to leave, Keesha asked, "When are we going on another field trip, Ms. Frizzle?"

"I'm terribly sorry, but since this isn't elementary school any more, we won't be able to have as many field trips as before. Once every week or two, if we're lucky," Ms. Frizzle explained sadly.

The class collectively sighed in disappointment.

"It's time to switch classes now, you'd all better get going," Ms. Frizzle reminded them.

Phoebe left with weight on her mind, still having mixed feelings about Arnold.

* * *

I don't usually do end-of-chapter notes, but I just wanted to offer a bit of a disclaimer without spoiling the chapter at the beginning: at the time I wrote this, my only exposure to Old English dialect had been Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I am now aware that the English language was quite different back in those days. I have left the dialogue the way I wrote it in the first place, though, so it'd be comprehensible, and also because I don't know enough about Old English to do it justice anyway.

ALSO, HAHAHAHAH the accent I gave that woman? What was I even thinking? All I could imagine while rereading it was Hagrid talking.


	5. Betty and George

Well, I've successfully wasted a whole day revising these chapters. And I'll probably continue well into the night, because I just LOVE to procrastinate.

By the way—I don't know whether "end-of-day roll call" is a real thing anywhere, but I made it up here to cover some of the changes I've made to certain details that would otherwise take a lot of rewriting, and this roll call that requires them to be at Ms. Frizzle's classroom at the end of the day was a lot more convenient to use. So in this universe, roll call is taken in the morning before class, and very quickly between the end of classes and the buses' departure, but it's not by whoever their last class was with; they go back to their homeroom teacher. And apparently no one cares what students do between first and last period. SO IT IS DECREED.

* * *

At lunch, Arnold sat a bit apart from the rest of his friends. Ever since the field trip, he had been feeling guilty about how he'd snapped at Phoebe. She was really upset but he hadn't had a chance to apologize, and now she seemed to be ignoring him.

He deliberately took a long time to eat his lunch, as Phoebe was taking her time too, and he stopped her just before she left.

"Phoebe, hold on a second. About this morning—"

"You don't need to explain. You were right; it was just a baby. Her life wasn't worth saving," Phoebe said coldly. She pushed past Arnold and walked briskly to her locker.

Arnold hadn't given up—he was about to follow Phoebe, but then the bell rang and he had to go to his next class. All through the last two periods he thought about what he would say to Phoebe to tell her how sorry he was.

Finally, when the last bell had gone and the students were leaving from end-of-class roll call, Arnold was able to catch up with Phoebe.

"Look Phoebe, we have to talk. This morning... I'm sorry. I overreacted and shouldn't have gotten so angry with you. Will you forgive me?" Arnold said with pleading eyes.

"Well... You did say some pretty harsh things. I'm not sure if I can forgive you just yet..."

Really, Phoebe was fully ready to forgive him, but she wanted to make sure he understood how much he had hurt her.

"Come on, Pheebs. I was just worried about the fate of the world! Okay... that sounded really cheesy..." Arnold trailed off awkwardly in the middle of his apology and Phoebe couldn't help but giggle.

"All right then, I forgive you," she said.

"There's one other thing, too," Arnold said hesitantly.

Phoebe was puzzled. What else could Arnold want to say...? Unless...

"I like you. I mean, _really_ like you. You know, as more than a friend."

Phoebe was surprised and happy, but apparently only the surprise showed on her face. When Arnold looked up from his shoes and took in her expression, he misread her feelings and immediately tried to back-track.

"Um... sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I shouldn't have said that. Uh... bye. See you later."

He turned hastily to leave, his face reddening quickly.

"Arnold..."

He paused. Phoebe gently put her hand on his shoulder and he turned around. She couldn't think of anything better to express how she felt—so she kissed him softly on the lips.

"I like you too."

* * *

In the principal's office, Wanda and Ralphie sat sullenly, waiting for Mr. Tennet to tell them how they would serve their detentions.

He came in shortly and went right to the point. "You will both spend your hour after school for the next week assisting the secretaries however they need it. If you have any questions or concerns you will most likely find me here in my office. Go now."

Wanda and Ralphie left Mr. Tennet's room and waited in the main office for a secretary to return and boss them around. With no adults around, Ralphie took the opportunity to goof off.

"Did you hear him? 'If you have any questions or concerns...' He sounded like a TV ad!" Ralphie said, jumping up on a chair. "'Yes Mr. Tennet, I'm concerned that you're not strict enough. We shouldn't have detentions, we should be _suspended_ for having fun like any normal teenager!'"

Wanda was amused by his speech, but didn't let it show. "Ralphie, you loser. Come down before you break something."

He jumped off the chair, knocking over a small table (and all its contents) next to the secretary's desk, just as the secretary herself was entering the room.

"What are you doing?" she chastised. "Clean that up right now."

"I tried to stop him," Wanda said casually. The secretary shot her a sharp look and she didn't add anything else.

Once Ralphie was done picking up the table and other things he had knocked over, the secretary officially started detention.

"I am Miss Gail, the head secretary. The other secretary is on sick leave at the moment. What are your names?"

Wanda and Ralphie exchanged mischievous glances.

"Betty."

"George."

Miss Gail looked at 'Betty' and 'George,' thinking of what to get them to help with first.

"I want you to take out the garbage and recycling," she said.

"What!" Wanda exclaimed. "Isn't that a janitor's job?"

"Not today. They're all busy. Hurry up and get a move on, Betty!" She sat at her desk and proceeded to shuffle through a pile of papers.

Grudgingly, Wanda and Ralphie picked up the recycling and trash receptacles and took them to the side of the school to be emptied.

"This is the worst detention ever. Usually it's just sitting in a room and staring a wall until the teacher sends us home. This sucks!" Ralphie complained.

"Well it's not my fault. You're the one who runs over principals. I was just your hostage," Wanda countered.

Ralphie shot her an annoyed glance, which she ignored and ran ahead to the school. He followed and, of course, beat her to the door.

* * *

For the rest of their detention, Wanda and Ralphie had to carry out rather strange tasks like washing the office windows and making coffee for the office staff.

Eventually, Miss Gail stood up and announced, "I have to go make some photocopies." She squinted at the clock. "Betty, George—you two can leave now, and don't be late tomorrow." She left the room with a stack of paper in hand.

The pair left the office and walked slowly to their lockers in an awkward silence, until Wanda spoke.

"So... um... hi."

"Yeah... hi."

"This was a weird detention, right _George_?"

"Yes it was _Betty_."

When they reached their lockers, Ralphie stopped suddenly, and Wanda bumped into him. Though she was in no danger of being knocked over, Ralphie grabbed her arm to steady her.

"Ralphie, you don't..." She took his hand to remove it from her arm, but paused when she saw him looking at her intently. She let her hand drop. In that awkward silence, they shared their first kiss.

Half a minute later, they hurriedly gathered their backpacks and binders in embarrassment to leave for home without a goodbye.

"That didn't mean anything," Ralphie said as they left the school building.

"Sure didn't," Wanda agreed.

* * *

The next day, the six friends met up in the hallways at school.

"How was detention?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, anything exciting happen?" D.A. added.

Wanda and Ralphie exchanged glances then both replied, "Nah."


	6. Making amends

Things I've noticed while revising this chapter: 1) The chapter lengths are quite variable, and 2) the plot is developing and character relationships are changing at a rather quick pace. It's only the third day of school for crying out loud! These kids are getting in over their heads! Didn't their parents raise them better? ... But seriously. I feel kind of weird about it, and in following chapters I think I'll try to make some changes to the time scale, just to slow things down a bit. I mean I had things planned for this fic aside from relationship drama, but that's what seems to be running rampant.

* * *

As usual, Ms. Frizzle said that she had no field trip for them, but that she was trying to plan one for next week. This came as no surprise, since Ms. Frizzle was always trying to set up a field trip.

When lunch came around, Keesha noticed that Ralphie and Wanda weren't talking. Ralphie wasn't even bugging her, like he always did.

Keesha decided to confront Wanda about it.

"Hey Wan, what's with you and Ralphie?" she asked at the end of lunch.

Wanda, having a bothersome little brother who liked to try to get her in trouble, was good at thinking up convincing lies quickly. She barely had to pause to think of a reply for Keesha. "Oh. Yesterday at detention, I finally yelled at him loud enough that he got the picture. So now he isn't harassing me, but it's kind of awkward between us," she 'explained.'

Most people would have been satisfied with this answer. Keesha, however, knew Wanda well enough to have suspicions.

"I think it's something more than that," she said, crossing her arms.

"No, it's _not_. Just drop it, okay?" Wanda stood up and stormed out of the cafeteria.

Keesha mentally noted not to get on Wanda's nerves today.

* * *

Then came the part of the day everyone was waiting for... not. Ralphie and Wanda begrudgingly made their way to detention once more.

They entered the administration office and found that the other secretary had returned from her sick leave. This other secretary was obviously newly hired, as she was quite pretty and didn't look a day over 19. Ralphie stared.

Miss Gail, the head secretary, introduced the younger woman as Miss Wilson, then set Wanda and Ralphie to work again.

This time the chores were notably less strange (they no longer had to wash windows, but were still sent to make coffee) though Ralphie continued to sneak glances at Miss Wilson throughout the detention session, which annoyed Wanda immensely for _some_ reason.

The afternoon went without anything terribly eventful happening (besides Miss Wilson crying "Oh, I _broke a nail_! What will I do _now_?") and when it was over Wanda left the school quickly without a word. Ralphie ran to catch up.

"Hey, Wanda, what's with the rush?" he said as he walked beside her.

"I have something important to do at home," Wanda replied shortly and picked up her pace.

"Are you mad at me?"

"No."

"Yes you are. Why?"

Wanda stopped and looked at him squarely. "'Cause the whole time at detention you were drooling all over _Miss Wilson_," she accused, spitting the name out like it was poison.

She turned and walked away again, even faster than she was going before. After a moment's pause Ralphie ran to catch up once again.

"Why do you care?" he asked, almost smugly.

Wanda blushed and tried, unsuccessfully, to hide it. "It... it was just annoying, okay?"

"What if I told you that you're the one I like? For real, not just a joke."

"I wouldn't believe you," Wanda countered without slowing her pace.

"Would this convince you?"

He blocked her path and turned her to face him. Similar to what had happened the day before, he crashed his lips to hers in a last attempt to prove his affection.

When they broke apart, Ralphie said simply, "I think that meant something."

Wanda nodded slightly and the two walked toward home, hand in hand.


	7. Follow your dreams

You know, it's really rather refreshing to update a story like it. It's been so long since I've read it that I hardly remember what happens in it, and so I can look at it with sort of a new perspective, which really helps me pick out conflicting details that I never noticed when I was writing it chapter-by-chapter all those years ago.

Oh, and also, I thought this was funny: in the original version of this chapter, I'd added a note that I'd be lucky to finish this story by the time I graduated high school. WELL GUESS WHAT, PAST SELF? LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE NOT VERY LUCKY AT ALL! BECAUSE NOW I'M 20 YEARS OLD AND WRITING MAGIC SCHOOL BUS FANFIction oh god what am I doing with my life.

* * *

The next few days of school were, once again, awkward between Wanda and Ralphie, but for a slightly different reason. Keesha _knew_ there was something going on, but decided not to mention it just yet.

"Good morning, class!" Ms. Frizzle said one day the following week, as she entered her classroom for the first class of the day.

"Good morning, Ms. Frizzle," the students chorused. Just like old times.

"This morning we'll be taking a look at famous scientists of the past," Ms. Frizzle started, but she was interrupted when Keesha unconsciously let out a sigh.

"Keesha? Anything the matter?" she queried.

"Nothing... not really. Recently I've been wanting to be some sort of scientist—as you all know, I can never settle on one career for long—but I don't think I'd be very good at it. I'm terrible at math, and it's a big part of science..."

After Keesha's explanation, Ms. Frizzle got that well-known glint in her eyes. "Why, what a perfect time to bring that up!"

After only a moment more, the much anticipated announcement came:

"Field trip, everyone!"

Ms. Frizzle would not reveal their destination, not even a hint. Only Tim, D.A. and Phoebe noticed that she pulled the same lever on the dashboard as she did on the last field trip... which was actually quite observant of them, considering the rather cramped surroundings.

The van was encircled with the same tornado-like wind, this time everyone noticing, so they all guessed they were going back in time again. Though some of the more careful thinkers had already suspected this, as Ms. Frizzle had announced that their study topic was famous scientists of the _past_.

The class exited the Magic School Van, expecting to see another plague-like landscape, but instead a more up-to-date scene was before them.

"Welcome to the early 20th century," Ms. Frizzle said. When nobody else spoke up, she beckoned for them to follow and she started off through the old American streets.

Though it might have been thought strange that she seemed to know her way around the unfamiliar place perfectly, no one had time to dwell on the matter, because they reached their destination very quickly.

"Does anyone have an idea as to who we're visiting?"

"..."

"Famous scientist..."

"..."

"Early 1900s..."

"...Napoleon Dynamite?"

"_Carlos!_"

Ms. Frizzle grinned. "We'll just see." She knocked on the door and it was promptly answered by a man with rather flyabout, graying hair.

"Ah, Ms. Frizzle, I've been expecting you!"

"Hello, Al," the teacher greeted him.

"Al, as in Albert Einstein?" said Tim.

"Yes, that's me. Come in, everyone."

Einstein had them all sit in the parlous, in chairs he gathered from around the house. Once they were all settled, he addressed the class.

"My dear friend Ms. Frizzle says you are a few children she teaches, and that you would like me to tell you a bit about science, right?"

The class decided to go along with it. They nodded.

"Where to begin? There is so much. Theories, concepts, linking ideas... There is simply too much to tell all in one sitting. What would you like to know?" Einstein regarded the kids eagerly.

D.A. was, of course, the first to speak up. "What could you tell us about your Theory of Relativity?"

Einstein's eyes lit up as he explained to the class all about his famous theory, and the author didn't go into detail since she didn't want to look it up on Google.

The children were soon engrossed in his knowledgeable explanations, asking question after question.

"What else do you want to know?" Einstein asked after finishing a brief description of molecular motion.

After a moment's hesitation, Keesha asked her burning question. "What does it take to be a scientist?"

"Love of science, for one thing. Curiosity. Persistence. Imagination. Patience." He paused.

"But if I were to be a scientist, would I have a lot of trouble with equations?" Keesha asked. "I'm not good with math."

Einstein chuckled. "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

There was a bit of a silence, then...

"I read that quote on the internet once," Arnold whispered.

"Pursue your dreams of science, overcome all obstacles. Never give up. That's the way to make life what you want it to be," Einstein said to Keesha, though he could not fathom why a black child would be allowed to participate in school, much less a female. Come to think of it, there were quite a few females in this group of students...

Perhaps noticing his curious glances at the girls, Ms. Frizzle stood up from her chair. "Well, Al, I'm sorry to cut this short, but we really must be getting back. We'll be sure to visit soon."

"I understand. Have a safe trip."

Ms. Frizzle and her students went back to the van and began the process of returning to the school. Keesha walked into the classroom much happier than she had that morning, convinced that she would be able to stick to this dream.

* * *

Ok, another end-of-chapter disclaimer. Since originally writing this, it has come to my attention that Einstein never said that thing about him being bad at math. In fact, he was rather amazing at math, and was very confused about how that quote got started. However, we're going to pretend that it's true in this universe, because it just makes for such a cute chapter.

Also, I know it's rather poor form to narrate my own thoughts in the middle of a chapter (that bit about not wanting to Google the theory of relativity) but hey, I kinda liked it. So it stays.


	8. Complications

All riiiight, I'm done updating the old chapters! And that's all I'm doing for today, because it's 2 AM and I've got more important things to be doing. Namely sleeping. So hopefully I'll be able to get into writing new chapters just as much as I did for revising old ones.

* * *

After the previous day's field trip and an evening of careful thought, Keesha returned to school with a spring in her step, and… a rather intriguing plan in mind. But first, she had to speak with Wanda.

"Hey, Wanda!" she called, when she spotted her Asian friend in the halls between classes.

Wanda turned to see Keesha and smiled. "Yeah?"

Keesha ran to catch up with her at their lockers. "I just wanted to ask you something. It's about…Well, it's about you and Ralphie."

Wanda tensed for a moment, then she loosened up and prepared herself to lie effortlessly, as usual. "Keesh, we're just friends. He drives me crazy sometimes, but there's nothing different between us."

"You're sure?"

"Yes!"

"All right." Keesha finished at her locker and made her way to her next class, gym, which she had with Ralphie, Carlos, Phoebe and Tim.

"OK, kids. Your last class went pretty well… though I could name a certain few of you who excelled…" Here, Ralphie and Carlos exchanged competitive glances. "But today we'll turn it up a notch. We've practiced some individual and paired soccer techniques already, so now we'll split into teams and play a real game. All right, let's go!"

The two teams were sorted out and they played three games (Carlos's team winning two of them). They even played one quick girls-versus-boys game at the end of class―the boys won, but only barely, for however much sportive skill Carlos and Ralphie had, it turned out Phoebe was a pretty mean soccer player.

The students then prepared to leave for their next classes. After Keesha changed, she waited for Ralphie to come out of the gym.

This was the day she would tell him, she told herself. Over the Summer, she'd realized she liked Ralphie as more than a friend. He was funny, athletic, and a trustworthy guy when the going got tough. She'd always thought whatever was between him and Wanda wasn't serious, and now Wanda had confirmed it herself. All that was left to do was let him know.

Ralphie was the last to leave the gym, and as the two walked toward the cafeteria, Keesha struck up a conversation.

"So, Ralphie, did you know there's a dance happening at the end of this month?" she said casually.

"Really? That's great! I can go with―um, never mind." He looked away quickly. Keesha took this to mean that he was too shy to tell her, and she could only assume one thing. It encouraged her considerably.

"Well, I… I thought you and I could go together," she said quickly.

Ralphie looked at her in surprise. He'd had no idea Keesha felt that way about him. Or maybe she just meant as friends?

"Look, Keesh… I don't know if that's―"

"Ralphie, I _know_ that you're just feeling shy and don't want to admit your feelings, but I can still tell you about mine! I've liked you since July, and… I…"

She trailed off, and Ralphie looked at her in quite a bit of shock. However, Keesha was still caught up in the moment.

While Ralphie stood frozen in place, Keesha leaned forward, put her hands on his shoulders, and kissed him… ignoring the fact that he was still not reacting.

At this very moment, Wanda came around the corner, also on her way to the cafeteria. She saw Ralphie with Keesha, locking lips. She came to a hault and stared, unable to turn away―she'd believed Ralphie when he told her that she meant something to him.

Ralphie finally managed to pull away from Keesha, and they both saw Wanda. The look on her face told Keesha that she'd made a huge mistake.

Wanda turned and ran down the hall.

"Wanda, wait! Come back!" Ralphie called, finally realizing what was happening, but Wanda was already out of sight.

Ralphie and Keesha trudged into the cafeteria and sat with the rest of their friends for lunch. When Wanda's absence was pointed out, Ralphie mumbled something about her not feeling well. Though the other five didn't know what had happened, they could tell it was something not to be pressed, so there was considerably less conversation. Ralphie and Keesha barely spoke to anyone, and not at all to each other.

Wanda didn't come back for class. She didn't even show up for roll call at the end of the day. The seven remaining friends left the building in rather low spirits, two in particular wondering how high school could have gotten so complicated already.


	9. AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hello, my dear readers! This is a story that I started a very, very, very long time ago. Like, middle school. And I abandoned it just a few years after it started, in early high school. And now I'm halfway done university. Yikes.

Anyway, for some reason or another, I was inspired to pick up on it again. (It most definitely is not because I want to procrastinate on job hunting. Promise.) So first I'm going to go back over the first 8 chapters that I wrote way back in the day, because it was such an embarrassingly long time ago that my writing has changed. Reading over this story again, I've noticed some details that just don't work - awkward wordings, out-of-character-ness, other little things that bother me. The story will remain largely unchanged; I just want to make it a little more bearable for me to look at, hahah.

So if you're a new reader who's just found this in the listings because of my update - then welcome aboard! If you're an old reader who subscribed to updates - welcome back! I can't promise I'll stick with this till the end, but for now, I feel like writing so that's what I'm gonna do.

Cheerio!

* * *

EDIT:

I've just finished the update! It took my more or less a day, but now I'm much more satisfied with the quality of this story. Like I said up there, I didn't change anything major, just certain details that I thought would improve story continuity or keep people in-character.

So in the next few days I'll hopefully get to writing brand new chapters! How exciting! At least I hope so. There's always the chance that I'll just keep putting it off and this story will be abandoned once more. *shrugs* Anyway, we'll just see how this thing goes.


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